Palmer: Year out won't affect racecraft

Jolyon Palmer is confident his race craft wont be affected by his 18 month spell out of single-seater racing.

Over one year on from his GP2 World Championship title Jolyon Palmer is now preparing for his first year in Formula One with the Renault F1 team. Despite having almost 18 months out of single-seater racing Palmer is confident the time away from the track wont have effected his racecraft when he makes his F1 début at the Australian Grand Prix in March.

“Although I’ve had a year out of proper racing, I think when it comes to racecraft and strategy, they are either in you or they’re not.

“I will find out in Melbourne when the lights go out whether I am suddenly feeling a little bit rusty. I hope not!

“The racing side of it you’re born with, and the strategy side I have been really involved with that in 2015.” Palmer spent the 2015 Formula One season as Lotus test driver where he make several appearances during practice sessions. 

“It’s been very useful because I’ve been listening in on everything, and even sometimes getting involved in the decisions. It’s been good to see things from an engineer’s point of view.

“When you’re driving you don’t understand what everyone on the pitwall is going through, and all the pain.

“So to have a year of people talking to, and about, the race drivers has been very interesting.”

“I’ve still got stuff to learn. I will be a rookie, I won’t have done a race start or an F1 race distance, so I’ll be up in the factory a lot on the simulator and pouring through data.

“It’s going to be really intense. That’s the difference between F1 and GP2, it’s the intensity of the work and the amount of different engineers and the attention to detail as well.”

Palmer will partner a formula regular in Pastor Maldonado for Renault’s first season back as a constructor in over 5 years. 

By: Chris Laker
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